NDTV Good Times’ deal with Kingfisher ends

MUMBAI: The Kingfisher bird has flown away from lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times. The flight was only natural after Vijay Mallya, the king of good times, ran into financial trouble.

Starting 1 April, NDTV Good Times pulled off air the kingfisher bird logo, which was the liquor-airline group’s mascot.

The lifestyle channel as of now continues to retain ‘Good Times’ in its branding, which is part of the tagline used by the UB Group (‘King of good times’). The channel will be rebranded in the coming months and with a possible new brand association, a source familiar with the development said.

NDTV has initiated talks with other potential advertisers. “The channel’s rebranding could take about three months. Meanwhile, the management is scouting for a similar advertising association,” the source added.

In 2007, Mallya made history by being the first advertiser to have formed an alliance with a channel, as liquor brands are not allowed to advertise according to government norms. Under the association with NDTV Good Times, Mallya committed advertising spend worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for a five-year period.

The agreement was then renewed for another three years. The deal expired on 31 March.

A source close to the development said that the UB Group has defaulted on the commitment. “Since the agreement was anyway coming to an end, we decided to let it die its own natural death,” said a source.

NDTV Good Times was launched in September 2007 as part of NDTV Lifestyle. Last month, the channel entered the regional-language market by launching a Tamil audio feed for NDTV Good Times. The Tamil version will initially deliver content from its existing library, which includes shows like ‘Band Baajaa Bride’, ‘Highway On My Plate’, ‘Chakh Le India’, ‘Vicky Goes Veg’, ‘Bachelor’s Kitchen’, ‘Luxe Interiors’, ‘Get The Look’, ‘No Big Deal’, ‘Heavy Petting’ and ‘Yogasutra’.

NDTV Good Times is looking at more regional-language channels, including Telugu and Bengali. The aim is to make lifestyle content available to a much wider audience.

Targeted at a young metropolitan audience, NDTV Good Times telecasts shows across the lifestyle genre such as fitness and health, travel, food and fashion. Over the years, the channel has won awards for its shows ‘Highway on My Plate’, ‘Band Baajaa Bride’, ‘No Big Deal’, ‘Making of the Kingfisher Calendar’, etc.

The channel is planning to launch more content related to fitness and wellness this year.

NDTV Good Times has presence across international markets such as the US, UK, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Singapore and the Maldives.